Pulverizing mills are commonly used to crush ore and coal for various purposes. One such purpose is to crush coal into fine particles for use as fuel to fire a boiler for a generator turbine. One type of pulverizing mill comprises a milling bowl which can be rotated about a vertical axis, a chute for dropping lump coal or ore onto the milling bowl and an annular vane structure attached to the outer periphery of the milling bowl for rotation therewith. Air is forced to flow upwardly through the vane structure toward the top of the pulverizing mill housing where a classifier structure separates the particles according to size and admits the smaller particles to a system of conduits which extend to a combustion chamber.
Mounted on an interior surface of the mill housing immediately around and above the vane structure is a deflector structure having an inwardly angled surface upon which air passing through the vane structure impinges so as to be deflected back toward the vertical center line of the pulverizing mill as it makes its way upwardly toward the classifier structure. The deflector prevents the abrasive particles from wearing on the walls of the mill housing and speeds up the particle separation process. The rotating vane mill is just one of many mill designs. Other designs use stationary, non-rotating milling bowls and/or stationary, non-rotating vanes. The invention described herein can be used with all such mills.